PJ Harvey fell in love in New York City, resulting in her fifth album, Stories from The City, Stories from The Sea. She keeps details of her private life away from public eyes while also stressing, self-consciously, that this is not her “New York album.” She didn’t write the entire album in New York; she also penned tracks in London and at her home in Dorset.
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But by Harvey’s standards, it’s a happier, almost euphoric album. Her noise-rock and goth-blues are more refined on Stories, though she still mines darkness as source material.
Her previous album, Is This Desire? was a melancholy, noisy effort, so by comparison, Stories is a pop-ish record. Harvey made a conscious effort for beauty and refinement, partially leaving the gut for the heart. Her sophisticated melodies are inviting, contrasting the intentionally unsettling sound of her previous releases.
Radiohead’s Thom Yorke sings on two album tracks, including the romantic ballad “This Mess We’re In.” Harvey told the Los Angeles Times she’d wanted another voice on a song to add “a very different dimension.”
What Was It You Wanted?
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea came out in 2000, the same year Radiohead released Kid A. Following OK Computer, Radiohead abandoned any notion of being a traditional rock band. Guitarist Ed O’Brien hoped they’d return to their R.E.M.- or Pixies-inspired roots, but Yorke responded, “There was no way that was going to happen.”
In a state of indie rock irony, Yorke joined Harvey on a song that sounds like it could have been a studio outtake from The Bends.
Can you hear them, the helicopters?
I’m in New York, no need for words now
We sit in silence
10-Story Love Song
“This Mess We’re In” is a love song with an undercurrent of dark regret. It could be about a one-night stand or returning to a former lover, and Yorke sounds like he’s suffocating even while singing the tender words.
Night and day
I dream of making love to you now, baby
Lovemaking on screen
Impossible dream
And I have seen the sunrise over the river
The freeway reminding of this mess we’re in
The romance feels like the mixed feelings of looking through the window of a skyscraper. With breathtaking views, the terror of unfathomable heights kicks in.
Harvey sounds more measured while Yorke wails through the chorus. The city sunrise provides warmth and a new day for some. But it also reveals something scary, like the feeling when a bar’s closing time lights come on. There’s confidence in the shadows, but light is an exposing force.
Talkie Walkie
Harvey’s song ends in a conversation with Yorke. He sounds like he’s hanging on for dear life. She’s talking him, metaphorically, off the ledge. She’s reassuring, but still, he must go.
What were you wanting? (What was it you wanted?)
I just want to say (I just want to say)
Don’t ever change now, baby (don’t ever change)
And thank you (and thank you)
I don’t think we will meet again (I don’t think we will meet again)
You must leave now before the sun rises above the skyscrapers
There’s an abstraction built into the song, and like minimalist poetry, there’s more than the words reveal. Another way to look at this song is it could be about New York City, like Jim Morrison’s ode to the City of Night in “L.A. Woman.” The Doors’ defining song anthropomorphizes Los Angeles, and you can interpret Harvey’s song similarly.
Mercury Prize
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea won the Mercury Prize, the annual award for the best album released in the UK or Ireland. The ceremony took place on September 11, 2001. Harvey was in Washington, D.C., and from her hotel room, witnessed the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon. She accepted by phone and spoke of the “surreal day.”
She’s the first female solo artist to win the Mercury Prize. Ten years later, she would win another for Let England Shake, making her the only artist to win it twice.
Little Fish, Big Fish, Swimming in the Water
Polly Jean Harvey has occupied a space of her own. She recorded her second album, Rid of Me, with producer Steve Albini in 1993 but existed outside the grunge scene. She stood apart from Britpop, even though her album landed in the middle of the burgeoning scene. Harvey wasn’t a riot grrrl or a third-wave feminist, but she’s sustained a fiercely independent career with creative autonomy.
Harvey isn’t oblivious to what’s happening around her, but she seems unconcerned about commercial appeal. She likes poetry and things that are old and tactile. It’s a contrarian approach to a world of disposable scroll-culture. Like New York, Harvey feels both antique and new.
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Photo by Theo Wargo/WireImage
